Body scan meditation is a component of the 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program, which is often used to treat chronic pain and other long-term illnesses.

Being able to meditate through pain—or at least, using meditation as a tool to manage it— marks a difference in how the brain behaves. This is no guru ...

To be sure, there's already a growing body of scientific research on mindfulness. But existing research namely looks at the long-term effects of MBSR on the brain.

This mindfulness-based body scan can help ease physical symptoms.

They were then asked to perform body-scan meditations with upright, slumped, leaning-back sitting, and supine postures and answer a questionnaire.